Nestlé Uses Avalanche Research to Study Ice Cream

Nestlé may be known for chocolate, but the company is getting serious about ice cream. So serious, in fact, that a team of scientists was hired to use research about avalanches to improve Nestlé's ice cream.

According to Nestle.com, the company hopes that new technology originally used to study avalanches can help solve the biggest, and possibly the only, ice cream-related mystery. What is this mystery that needs solving? Ultimately, the Nestlé company would like to figure out how to get rid of those pesky little ice crystals that form when ice cream is left in the freezer for too long.

It's an age-old problem that has had ice cream makers stumped and customers frustrated for years. In the past, it was impossible to study this phenomenon because opening an ice cream carton ruined the sample. Therefore, scientists couldn't determine how the ice crystals formed over time.

Now the Nestlé scientists are using X-rays to look into a carton of ice cream without opening it. This same technique was originally created by the scientists at the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research to look into the center of an avalanche without disturbing the development of ice crystals.

So far Nestlé's findings have been somewhat predictable. They published a paper in a scientific journal called "Soft Matter" explaining that the main cause behind ice crystals forming was the process of refreezing. Basically ice cream gets icy when it's allowed to melt slightly and is then refrozen. Although these findings aren't particularly surprising, Nestlé hopes that further research will allow them to understand ice crystals well enough to develop ice cream that will resist forming the crystals, even throughout the refreezing process.

Do you get those ice crystals in your ice cream at home? Do you think it's worth it for Nestlé to study this phenomenon in order to invent ice crystal-resistant ice cream?